HARRISBURG — Negotiations toward a past-due state budget went into the weekend with House Democrats in disagreement, at least publicly, with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro over a scholarship program aimed at students in low-performing public schools.
The new fiscal year began Saturday without a budget in place. House lawmakers were told to be ready to return to the chamber on a six-hour notice, indicating closed-door negotiations were expected to continue Saturday and Sunday. The negotiations involve a welter of issues, but the scholarship appeared the most controversial.
The proposed scholarships would let students in low-performing public schools – including many in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia – attend private schools. Mr. Shapiro, who is popular in the state and whose national political prominence is growing, supports the concept. But the leader of Democrats who control the House by a 102-101 margin, Rep. Matt Bradford of Montgomery County, said that if a bill setting up the program comes up for a vote in his chamber, it will fail.
The Republican-controlled Senate already has passed both the bill setting up the scholarship program and a proposed fiscal 2024 budget bill whose $45.6 billion in proposed spending includes $100 million to get the program started. Mr. Shapiro worked with Senate Republicans on that spending proposal.
A spokesperson for Mr. Shapiro did not respond to a request made Saturday morning for comment on the negotiations. A spokesperson for House Democrats said she was seeking a response to a written question.
House Republican leader Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster, said late Friday, “We are facing a budget impasse.”
Mr. Cutler indicated House Democrats’ handling of the scholarship issue was a crucial factor. “The key to unlocking this budget lies with passing a proposal to help students and families in struggling schools,” Mr. Cutler said.
The scholarship concept backed by Mr. Shapiro and Senate Republicans has a key difference from earlier voucher-style proposals: the money to put students in private schools would not come from the flow of state money to public school districts. Instead, it would come directly from the state Treasury.
Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Northampton and the longest-serving member of the House, said Friday that as a whole, House Democrats are concerned about vouchers.
One of his own concerns, Mr. Freeman said, is that by giving out taxpayer-funded scholarships to let students leave public schools “you sometimes end up giving an open door to having the better students leave the district. And what happens then? It is a downward spiral.”
The state, he said, should be looking for ways to focus a “critical mass” of funding on public schools to allow them to improve, rather than seeking ways to spread out funding in various channels.
“I am against vouchers,” Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton, said on Friday. But, he added, “This is only one issue where the House and Senate have a difference.”
State Rep. Rob Mercuri, R-Allegheny, on Saturday said the scholarships proposal would improve the lives of children. He said “educational special interests” are behind the opposition to it.
“What hangs in the balance with this budget impasse is the direction of educational opportunities for thousands of students across Pennsylvania,” Mr. Mercuri said.
Besides resolution of the scholarship issue, negotiators also have to bridge differences on a number of other points. Sen. Jay Costa, D-Allegheny and the chamber’s top Democrat, said in a statement issued Friday that any budget agreement has to meet “adequacy and equity goals” set out by Mr. Shapiro and in a recent court ruling that deemed the state’s education funding formula unconstitutional.
“Head Start and Pre-K programs and investing in environmental remediation in our school buildings in particular are woefully underfunded” in the Republican-led Senate’s $45.6 billion spending plan, Mr. Costa said. He also said it shortchanged funding for higher education and efforts to help communities address gun violence.
Ford Turner: fturner@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 2, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: July 3, 2023, 4:37 p.m.